Mass Effect: PostWar
by punk-lord
Summary: To avoid SPOILERS, a more detailed summary is in the story.  After the events of Mass Effect 3, the crew of the Normandy fight to survive.


**MASS EFFECT: POST-WAR**

_Post-War takes place directly after Mass Effect 3, just after the Normandy has crash landed on the mysterious tropical planet. To set up the scene, the decisions made previously by Shepard were: Sherpard romanced Ashley in ME1, Miranda in ME2, and Ashley in ME3, the Geth and Quarians made peace, and in the end, Shepard did the synthesis ending, combing synthetic and organic life. _

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1 - Stranded<strong>

Joker sat in the pilot's seat of the Normandy, motionless. His fingers twitched, his eyes couldn't blink, and he couldn't close his mouth. His entire body was shaking. Finally, he regained control of his body and blinked a few times. He lowered his arms and laid back in his seat, letting out a huge sigh of relief.

He struggled, but managed to get out of his pilot's chair. He stumbled towards the door to the Normandy, to exit the ship. He tripped and gasps as he headed for the metal floor, but something stopped him. An arm caught him and brought him back to his feet.

EDI stood there, in her synthetic body, having caught him. She smiled at him.

Joker returned the smile, and the two went for the door. Joker pressed the button on the control panel and it opened. Light bellowed in and Joker stuck up his arm, shielding his eyes from the drastic change of lighting. Finally, his eyes adjusted and he stumbled out of the ship.

Joker looked up in amazement at the jungle planet they had crashed landed on. Two large planets were in view in the sky. Miles and miles of thick jungle covered everything, including a waterfall.

EDI came out of the Normandy, looking around as well. Her eyes lit up at the sight of the planet. She went over to Joker and smiled. Joker put his arm around her shoulder and EDI put her arm around his waist.

Joker's arm lit up green, almost highlighting it and its synthetic additions. EDI noticed this and looked at it. She peered at it, then looked at Joker.

"Jeff..." EDI seemed concerned.

Joker looked at the synthetics in his arm and returned the concerned glance. "I don't know," he said.

Liara T'Soni came out of the ship, gazing at her surroundings in amazement. "Goddess," she muttered as she spun in circles, looking at the planet. Liara looked at EDI. "EDI, where are we?"

"I do not know," EDI replied. "My navigational systems are not currently working."

Liara held up her omni-tool but as she did, she saw the green highlighted synthetics in her arm. She dropped her arm quickly and looked down at it. "What is this?"

EDI turned to Liara. "You and Jeff are both showing positive signs of synthetic life."

"What?" Liara exclaimed. "How are we synthetic?"

EDI added, "But you are also showing organic life. Much like a... hybrid of some sort."

Liara went over to Joker and scanned him with her omni-tool. Joker shrugged, "Well? Anything?"

Liara shook her head, "The omni-tool isn't working. I don't know why."

Joker, Liara, and EDI all nervously looked around.

* * *

><p>Garrus opened his eyes with a groan. He raised up from the floor and rubbed his head. He looked around. He was laying in the main battery area. All systems were shut off.<p>

"Crap," Garrus grunted as he stood up, checking out the terminals in the main battery. Every single one showed a completely blank screen. There was no power to the ship.

The door opened and Tali entered quickly.

"Garrus!" Tali exclaimed.

"I'm alright. Are you?" Garrus said as Tali checked out the terminals and sighed to see the ship had no power.

"I'm fine," Tali said, turning back to Garrus. "The ship is not."

Garrus walked out of the battery, followed by Tali.

The two walked through the ship, where they passed many of the ship's crew trying to recover from the crash. From the elevator, Ashley Williams and James Vega emerged, joining Garrus and Tali in their march to the ship's exit.

"Garrus, Tali," Ashley said. "Where are we? Everything went black. We had to do the manual override on the elevator."

The four came out of the ship, where Joker, EDI, and Liara all stood at the edge of the cliff, peering out into the jungle.

"Hey," Ashley said to them. "Where the hell are we?"

Joker shrugged, "It could be anywhere."

Ashley looked out over the jungle, her mouth dropped open and her eyes wide. She stuttered as she talked, not being able to comprehend their situation. "What about - "

"Shepard?" Garrus crossed his arms. "He was in the Citadel and it got blown halfway to hell."

Ashley looked down sadly. Liara looked over at her and frowned. "Maybe he's . . . " Liara started, but decided not to finish her own sentence.

Joker took his cap off and rubbed the top of his head and let out a sigh. "What do we do now?"

Ashley took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She then turned to the rest of the team and puffed out her chest, trying to become the leader they needed. "We get the ship working and we get the hell off this planet."

Vega shrugged, "Where will we go? If the Citadel's sky high, where do you think everyone's gathering at?"

"We'll need to send out a message," Ashley said, slamming her fist into her palm. "We're gonna be okay, people. Got it?"

"No."

They all turned to see the Prothean, Javik, exiting the Normandy, looking around at the jungle surroundings.

"No?" Ashley raised an eyebrow.

"We are not going to be okay," Javik said, approaching Ashley. "Don't you see? We are stranded. This is where we were meant to die."

Ashley shook her head, with almost a smirk. "No. Not me. I'm not dying here."

"Me neither," Garrus said proudly. "We've been in worse situations before."

Javik turned to Garrus quickly, "Have you? The Citadel is destroyed. The central hub for life in this galaxy... gone."

Garrus took a step back, not quite being able to think of a retort.

Javik continued, looking at Liara now. "Your mass relays . . . gone. Destroyed in a super nova explosion." Javik looked at Vega. "And Earth? Did it survive?"

Vega bit his lip, trying to hold back from punching Javik.

Javik walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked out into the jungle. "This is our grave. Accept it." And with that, Javik turned and walked back into the Normandy.

A silence filled the jungle, as Ashley, Garrus, Liara, Tali, Joker, EDI, and Vega stood there, nobody speaking, nobody making eye contact.

Ashley sighed, "EDI, try to get the ship back online. Any functions that even have the smallest signal, just get it on."

EDI nodded and headed back into the ship. Joker watched her go, a look on his face that he was already missing her.

Ashley looked at Tali. "Tali, do you think you can maybe get down to the core, see if you can do anything?"

"Of course," Tali nodded, heading back into the ship.

Ashley looked out towards the jungle. "How much food do we have?"

Joker shrugged, "Not much. Couple days worth."

Liara looked down at her arm, seeing the highlighted green synthetics. She gripped a fist and looked out at the jungle. "We can do this," she whispered, only loud enough for herself to hear.

* * *

><p>Tali stood at the balcony over looking the dead ship drive. She hammered on buttons and switches, but to no avail. She got down on her knees and took off a panel. She looked at a mess of wiring and let out a hard sigh. Tali got down on her back and nudged her way inside of the panelling with her head and arm in it.<p>

The door opened and Garrus entered. He looked down at Tali on her back on the floor.

"My, my," he chuckled.

"What?" Tali raised up, hitting her head on edge of the panelling, causing a loud _clang_ sound.

"Oh, geeze!" Garrus bent down to help Tali stand up, thinking she had gotten hurt. "You alright?"

Tali laughed and clanked her fist on her helmet, "Yes, I'm alright."

Garrus laughed, a little shyly, as Tali dusted herself off. Tali looked at him and smiled from behind her mask. "What are you up to, Garrus?"

Garrus cleared his throat, trying not to show his guard being let down by his emotions. "Um, I was just checking in on you. How is the drive looking?"

Tali turns and looks at the dead drive. She shrugged, "Not responding. I'll get it working, though." She looked back at Garrus. "I can fix anything."

"I know you can," Garrus nodded.

Garrus, feeling like he had made a fool of himself, turned and went out the door, Tali watching him go sadly. Once he was gone, Tali resumed working on the Normandy's drive core.


End file.
